Grandparent visitation is a legal right which
grandparents in some
jurisdictions may have to have court ordered visitation (or contact) of their grandchildren. In the
United States
all 50 states have a "grandparent visitation" statute that allows
grandparents to ask a court to grant them the legal right to
maintain ongoing contact with loved children. State laws vary
greatly and some states do not guarantee that the grandparents will
be able to obtain a court order granting them visitation. The
rationale behind these laws is that sometimes, especially with the
death of a parent or in a family that has undergone divorce, the children may not
have the opportunity to have contact with the non-custodial
parent and his relatives thus fostering continued familial
bonds. Some parents say that court-ordered grandparent visitation
infringes upon the fundamental right of a fit parent to raise their
child in the manner they see fit (including the right to decide who
the child will associate with).

Impact of Troxel v.
Granville

In the case of Troxel v. Granville, the United
States Supreme Court has said that "the interest of parents in
the care, custody and control of their children--is perhaps the
oldest of the fundamental liberty interests recognized by this
Court."[1] The
Supreme Court also made it clear that this fundamental right is
implicated in grandparent visitation cases. The plurality opinion
stated at the outset that statutes allowing grandparent visitation
orders to be imposed over parental objection "present questions of
constitutional import." The Supreme Court flatly declared that a
parent's fundamental right to the "care, custody and control of
their children" was "at issue in this case." The Supreme Court
struck down the Washington grandparent visitation statute because
it unconstitutionally infringed on that fundamental parental
right.

State courts considering non-parent visitation petitions must
apply "a presumption that fit parents act in the best interests of
their children.".[2] Troxel
requires that State courts must give "special weight" to a fit
parent's decision to deny non-parent visitation. “Choices [parents
make] about the upbringing of children . . . are among
associational rights . . . sheltered by the Fourteenth Amendment
against the State's unwarranted usurpation, disregard, or
disrespect.”[3] This
principle must inform our understanding of the “special weight”
Troxel requires courts to give to parents’ decisions concerning
whether, when and how grandparents will associate with their
children. Even though Troxel does not define "special weight,"
previous Supreme Court precedent indicates that "special weight" is
a strong term signifying very considerable deference.[4] The
"special weight" requirement, as illuminated by these prior Supreme
Court cases, means that the deference provided to the parent's
wishes will only be overcome by some compelling governmental
interest and overwhelmingly clear factual circumstances supporting
that governmental interest.